Soft Opt-in For Charities – ICO Issues Draft Guidance And Consultation

The Data Use and Access Act 2025 makes a number of changes to our data protection laws – some having a more significant impact than others. For charities in particular there is a major change which will impact the way in which they can carry out direct marketing – due to the extension to charities of the "soft opt-in". This "charitable purpose soft opt-in" is expected to come into force in early 2026. Until then, charities should not use this for their fund-raising activities.

The "soft opt-in" broadly means that where a charity is contacted by an individual who is offering, or providing support to further the charitable purposes of that charity, then the charity in question will be permitted to use that individual's contact information to market to them for fundraising purposes. A similar soft opt-in is currently available to commercial enterprises, however historically charities have not been allowed to make use of this provision.